How the odds were stacked against '50 to 1'

Director of Mine That Bird movie recounts challenges, triumphs

Producer/director Jim Wilson during filming at Churchill Downs for the movi "50 to 1." Wilson said it was impossible to sell the project to Hollywood and it took more than three years to complete. (Courtesy)

When New Mexico's own Mine That Bird won the Kentucky Derby in May of 2009, the horse beat 50-to-1 odds.

When producer/director Jim Wilson first started his project to bring the underdog story to the big screen, he said Hollywood was basically giving him 50-to-1 odds that the film would even be made.

Owned by Roswell residents Mark Allen of Double Eagle Ranch and Dr. Leonard Blach of Buena Suerte Equine, Mine That Bird shocked horse racing when he made an incredible last-to-first run along the rail to win the Kentucky Derby. A two-dollar win ticket on Mine That Bird paid $103.20 and he was the second-longest shot to win the Kentucky Derby in 139 runnings.

Chip Woolley (Skeet Ulrich) and Mine That Bird (Sunday Rest) exchange glances during a scene from the movie "50 to 1." (Courtesy)

"It was a difficult piece to get launched originally," Wilson said. "Hollywood really wasn't interested in it. They didn't really want anything to do with another horse story. They run in cycles. You had 'Secretariat' and there was a TV show called 'Luck,' and some of these things didn't do the business they had hoped."

But Wilson couldn't get the story of Mine That Bird that would become the movie "50 to 1" out of his head.

"I watched the Kentucky Derby on a TV set at home," Wilson recalled. "I was stunned visually by what this little horse did. I've owned horses for 25 years, I've raced them, and I've never seen a race quite like this. So just visually, it was so stunning what Mine That Bird did on that given Saturday in May. So that started my wheels turning."

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For Wilson, producer of such movies as "Dances with Wolves" and "Wyatt Earp," it really didn't matter what Hollywood was looking for.

"They wanted to wait a few more years and I didn't really want to wait," Wilson said. "It took a little more to get this off the ground. It was an impossible sell, really. I made the rounds and they said 'I don't want this story.' They had never heard of Mine That Bird in L.A., coming out of New Mexico didn't interest them, winning the Kentucky Derby wasn't that big of a deal, and I wasn't going to cast all major movie stars. I wanted guys that really fit the parts."

Alex (Madelyn Deutch) aboard Mine That Bird (Sunday Rest) in a scene from the movie "50 to 1." (Courtesy)

Time and dedication

It took more effort and more time.

"Most of the projects I'm involved in it, if I'm producing, from top to bottom, it's about a year, a year and half," he said. "It will open in New Mexico March 21 so I will have been on it nearly three and a half years. No, this isn't my typical studio film."

Not only was the horse unique, but those involved, those who would evolve to eventually be portrayed on the big screen, are unique as well, he said.

After the Kentucky Derby, Wilson said he went to Roswell to meet with Mark Allen and Leonard "Doc" Blach, owners of Mine That Bird, and trainer Chip Woolley. Those initial meetings "added the fuel I needed to my fire," he said.

"They're such colorful characters," Wilson said. "I didn't really know the 'American Cowboy.' I was never someone who went to a bar as a youngster and got into fights. And so for me it was like, 'Wait, these guys really do shoot tequila, and have been in bar fights, put their leathers on and ride Harleys, and trailer their horses across country to go to derbies. This is fascinating.'

"I spent a year just researching this before putting pencil to paper. I spent a lot of time with these guys, traveled with them, lived with them, went to the track with them. We did all we can to make sure we got the right story."

The way the movie developed and the movie itself isn't a typical Hollywood horse-race movie either, he said.

"It's an underdog story and I'm a sucker for the underdog," Wilson said. "But the film is much more of a romp than your 'Secretariat' or 'Sea Biscuit.' This is a little grittier. I don't think it's quite as pretentious as some of those other pictures."

It's also a fish-out-of-water story.

"You got these guys from New Mexico, making their way into the kind of blue bloods of Kentucky, and seeing them go to the Kentucky Derby parties, be seated by the royalty there. It's a lot of fun. Every scene I directed I imagined myself in the cinema with popcorn and a coke and it's something that I would want to watch."

Mark Allen (Christian Kane) and Leonard "Doc" Blach (William Devane) cheer on Mine That Bird in a scene from the movie "50 to 1." (Courtesy)

Wilson points out that this horse was the first thoroughbred this group ever purchased, having experience only in quarter horse racing. They took Mine That Bird to the track at Santa Anita and the horse came in last place.

"They bring the horse to New Mexico, and it can't win in New Mexico," Wilson said. "So the horse is 0-3, it qualifies for the Kentucky Derby and they decide, 'Let's see what happens.' You really do have an underdog. You don't have to make this stuff up.

"In one scene, when they get to Kentucky, to their own party, in their leathers and their cowboy hats, they weren't going to be let in. They dressed rather differently for this black-tie affair."

Filming the movie

Wilson said locals who watch the movie will probably be able to pick out some familiar panoramas, because the picture was shot at more than 30 locations in New Mexico.

"We were headquartered in Albuquerque but we shot Santa Fe, we shot a little town call Ponderosa, we shot Las Cruces, Anthony, Sunland Park, it was significant."

What also was significant was the challenge of recreating that day in May in Kentucky on a low budget, he said.

"We don't have an enormous budget, it's not a big studio film so when you're dealing with financial limitations like that, you often have to be more creative. For me having to have an appearance of 50,000 people staring at this horse in a paddock and to put the real jockey, Calvin Borel, on board and to make it so realistic so that everyone in the audience is believing it, those are the scenes that I marvel and say, 'God, we actually pulled it off.'"

The earlier scenes that are shot in New Mexico also stand out for Wilson, he said.

"You know, when it's dark in the morning and all of a sudden that sun rises and you can see forever and the mountains, the giant vistas," Wilson said. "It's a pretty picture. I spend a lot of time with the films I produce, if you think of 'Dances with Wolves,' 'Wyatt Earp,' 'Message in a Bottle,' I do take great care in the way these movies look. I'm real proud of the New Mexico landscape in this film."

Wilson said he has an affinity for New Mexico.

"It feels so much more real than say Kentucky or New York," Wilson said, adding that the crew he used to make the movie was from New Mexico.

"And they got what I was after," he said. "The film has a little more teeth it. And you can feel that love off the screen."

Wilson said most people can tell when a movie is made out of the passion of those involved, rather than a movie made to generate box-office revenue. The audience can sense that.

"I shouldn't say typical Hollywood movie, because I've been involved in plenty of them," Wilson said. "But I'm glad this film swings the other way."

Jockeying for authenticity

While the movie features professional actors Skeet Ulrich, Christian Kane, William Devane and Todd Lowe, it also highlights the acting debut of Calvin Borel, the jockey who rode Mine That Bird into Kentucky Derby history.

"Playing one's self is one of the hardest things to do," Wilson said. "One thinks 'Oh it's easy,' but when you write dialogue, it's obviously not their dialogue, I write the dialogue, and then you put the cameras on them, and the lights on them and other actors are coming at you, and you're supposed to be playing yourself. It's difficult to do, especially for a non-pro."

Borel is "a jockey through and through, that's all he does."

"So to put him opposite Skeet Ulrich, Todd Lowe, Christian Kane and the other stars of the movie, to put him under the bright lights, and say, 'And — action!' — it's a big deal," Wilson said. "He pulls it off brilliantly. It's staggering what he does and I think he'll get noticed for that. I couldn't be happier."

Wilson noted that casting Borel was "one-of-a-kind" that's not seen in other horse-racing movies in which the jockeys are not available or can't pull it off.

As the producer and director of the movie, Wilson said he had another actor waiting in the wings to play Borel just in case it didn't work out.

"It is a gamble, it's risky," Wilson said. "After day one, I was elated. I could have had more scenes (with Borel) had I the time and the money."

Wilson said finding the lead actors who he believed could pull of the authenticity of the people they were to portray took four months, with the final cast made up of actors he hadn't worked with before.

"These guys are all real cowboys," Wilson said. "They grew up in Texas, Oklahoma, Virginia. They got what I was up to. And that made it easier day to day."

Casting a horse

Wilson casting the star of the movie — Mine That Bird — also took some time and effort.

"You have to get to know the real horse first," he said. "I spent some time in Roswell and some other places with Mine That Bird. I saw him race at Churchill Downs. I was at his retirement party. You have to get to know that horse because that's who you want to duplicate."

Wilson worked with two trainers he knows to get the word out, as well as photos and videos of Mine That Bird.

"We looked at nearly 400 head of horses," Wilson said.

The horse that was ultimately chosen, Sunday Rest, was found in Calgary, Canada.

A trainer sent photos of the three-year-old thoroughbred to Wilson who in turn sent them to Mine That Bird owners Allen and Blach, who said "spot on."

"So we used this little horse to play Mine That Bird," Wilson said. "A lot of movies will use eight or nine horses to play Secretariat or Sea Biscuit — we used one. This horse does it all."

Premiering in New Mexico

After all his efforts to get the project completed, Wilson's movie, "50 to 1," is scheduled to premier throughout New Mexico, including Ruidoso, on March 21.

The director admits that the scattered cities and towns of New Mexico aren't the typical places to premier a movie, but the obvious roots of the movie made it the obvious choice for him, he said.

"So often you'll film a movie in New Mexico and you'll premier it in Los Angeles or New York, and the reason you do that is for the press," Wilson said. "I've always felt it's a bit of a disservice to the place where you actually made the movie. The fact that the owners (of Mine That Bird) live there and the horse lives there, I just thought, 'You know, I think this belongs to New Mexico and let's bring it back there first.'"

The film opens in Las Cruces at what Wilson said is "this little quarter horse dirt track just outside of town."

"They've got a little starting gate," Wilson said. "It was just what I was looking for."

Wilson said he has shot four films in New Mexico and spent two years in the state, "so part of my life is there."

"It's not terribly novel to be there on Hollywood Boulevard and have another premier," he said. "This is a little tribute to New Mexico and it's deserving of a premier. It's where it should be."

Wilson said he hopes the audiences in New Mexico, and elsewhere, "just generally enjoy the film."

"Everyone will get something different out of it," he said. "Some will love the inspirational story. It gets pretty emotional at times. The horse lovers will love the horse scenes. I'm not sure what everyone will take from it, but I'm sure it will be a positive experience.

"It's well under two hours, so it's not one of my three-hour pictures so it doesn't bang you on the head," Wilson added with a chuckle.

Wilson said his latest work isn't so much a deviation from the current Hollywood trend, but more of a "throw-back to some of the movies that were made in the '70s and '80s."

"The studios are not making this sort of thing any more," Wilson said. "It's getting rarer and rarer that you see this, so I hope it gets some support. I know what's coming with the studios. There are more giant sequels and more effects-laden pictures, and those are just not my movies. I know there are huge audiences for them and I don't bemoan them at all. But I do hope some of these live-action, original tales are made. I know there will be fewer and fewer. I'm kind of fighting that fight a little bit."

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